Corn Sugar at Secondary?

[seanppp]

I know a lot of brewers on this forum don't bother doing a secondary. But for those of us who do:

How about this idea? Throw a small amount of corn sugar into the secondary to purge the headspace with CO2. If it's a small amount then perhaps it will calm down after a week or so (??), you have no oxygen in there, and you can settle the beer after that point.

I know it sort of sounds crazy because you're introducing activity to the step that is specifically designed to settle the beer, but if you let it settle out afterword perhaps that is a good idea.

Just a thought. Let me know what you think.

 

[Yooper]

Well, I think it would do just what you said- that instead of the beer clearing and settling out that fermentation would restart and then take longer to clear out and settle and add more trub to the bottom. It'd be like doing a small new primary. I don't see the advantage. If the brewer wants to use a clearing vessel, that's fine. But to restart fermentation would defeat the purpose of a clearing vessel. I'd be more inclined to just leave it in primary.

 

[atonofhops]

co2 will offgass when you transfer the beer to the secondary anyway. I would not be too concerned with oxygenating your beer during the transfer as long as the transfer hose is in the bottom of your secondary